We are located in the mountains of eastern Kentucky on the banks of the Kentucky River where 4 generations of the McGuire family have called home. This is a picture of life as we know it.

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Friday, January 18, 2013

Whas up with that?

I have ask myself that question several times in the past few years. I have never had a skin allergy, food allergy, nothing bothers me at all. Well except poison ivy. Now it seems every little things causes me to break out, itch or hurt. Whas up with that? My doc tole me a long time ago that fibro does effect some peoples' skin and cause rashes, hives, dry patches and such. I reckon I got every dang one of the symptoms that a person could possibly have. Or maybe its just age, who knows. But I try to steer clear of artificial ingredients in lotions that I use for a moisturizer. So I got the bright idea, I make my own soap, why not make my own lotions too. So I started reading about the how-to's a few months ago. I finally got my lil mind wrapped around a recipe and decided to give it a whirl. I thought lotion bars would be more convenient as you don't need jars to store the stuff in. I came up with the recipe with healing, moisturizing, soothing lotion that anyone can use, even for babies. None toxic ingredients, so very safe for kids. I decided I wanted to use some herbs in the oil for extra umph. I used goldenseal, calendula, rose petals, and chamomile. I wanted to use coconut oil for its antiviral, anti fungal, antibiotic properties. Also used Castor oil, almond oil, and apricot oil as all of these are very nourishing to the skin. For extra staying power I also added Shea butter and mango butter. I added sweet orange essential oil for a lil fragrance. So now ya have the whys, here's the recipe.

I do most of this on the stove top. Use a small pot you wont be needing for anything else as it is super hard to clean up. In this small pot put the herbs, coconut oil and liquid oils. Heat to melt an let macerate for an hour, the longer the better. This gets all the good stuff out of the herbs. Keep heat low at all times and stir often. Strain the oil mixture thru a sieve to remove the herbs, Press the herbs with a spoon to get all the goodness out of them. Put oil back in the small pot and add the Shea and mango butter, and beeswax. Set on low heat and stir to melt well. Let cool for a few minutes and add about 15 drops of essential oil and stir to blend. Pour into molds of your choice and let harden. Use as needed for moisturizing. The lotion will be hard and will melt in your hands and can easily be applied to the body. Once this sits on the skin for a bit it does not have a greasy feel to it. So now if ya don't like having this you cant pronounce in your body lotions, this is for you. If you get all organic ingredients all the better. Enjoy!! I know I do.

I think my next project will be to make homemade shampoo. As most of you know the skin is the largest organ of the human body. Anything you put on the skin does get absorbed. If it is not good for you to ingest I doubt it would be good on the skin, The same goes for shampoo. And yesterday on the way to the dentist Rodger was complaining about his hair being so dry. He has long hair and in winter he only needs to wash it about every other day. And it still breaks and splits. So we picked up a bottle of Dr Bonner's castille soap. It is pure soap made only from pure vegetable oils. From the things I have read it cleans without stripping all the natural oils from the hair. So I will let ya know how this works for him. My dad said all the old folks used plain lye soap to wash their hair. Lye soap is pH balanced so it should be good for washing hair. I have not tried my homemade soap as mine has been super fatted to add moisture to the skin, so don't think I would want to add those extra oils to my hair.

I got lots of projects to work on and winter time is slipping away. I got to get me busy working on a baby quilt for little Liam. He will be here and I wont have a quilt made. My mind commits me to things my body cant get done these days. We don't have any big things to do tomorrow so maybe I can get started on the quilt. We shall see.
Not much else happening here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

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About Me

I'm Stella, and I was born and raised in Eastern Kentucky on the family farm of which I am 4th generation owner. I have raised my 2 sons here as well. And someday they can live the life and enjoy this place as much as I have. I am so blessed to have this place on the Kentucky river with its fertile soil, abundant wildlife and rural serenity. So nice to sit on the front porch in the late evening with my coffee and listen to the calls of the wild and wonder just how the rest of the world survives without this peace and quiet. So grab a cup of coffee or a cold beer and enjoy the read as I share some of the vintage treasures we have from generations past.
Blessings from the McGuire homestead.